What’s a birthday without embarrassing anecdotes?

The Statue of Liberty turned 125 today, which was observed by a celebratory bash just before shutting her down for repairs. 125 immigrants were sworn in as Americans and …. Wait, really?

Folks, not only did more than 1000 American and French people in attendance observe Lady Liberty’s role in welcoming new arrivals from the east, but they also observed her role in Ghostbusters II:

“After the American and French national anthems were played, actress Sigourney Weaver read ‘The New Colossus,’ a poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed under the statue in bronze, with the famous line about welcoming ‘your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'”

The event concluded with fireworks, but details are sketchy as to what song was played during them. We can, therefore, responsibly conclude that it was “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.”

Eat My Sports: Popcorn links all

As you’ve seen by now, Bryan Schools is taking a much needed marriage-based vacation (we currently believe he’s desecrating Rome as you read this very sentence). That’s why we’re all taking turns at his column.

Wait, hold up, come back. I know that being the movie guy on this site, I might not be the first guy you think of to write about sports. “He writes about movies! His news posts involve video games and cooking and aliens spore pods and Angelina Jolie’s hiney!”

Heh. You just said hiney.

And yet. If I must validate myself, my credentials include this: 4 years of high school football (one year in which my team went undefeated and won a state championship), 4 years of high school basketball, around 2 decades of being a consistent season ticket attendee of UVa football games (vainglorious in defeat!) and a better ability to discuss both the management and player sides of the NFL, NBA and NCAA than most meatheads. There, I have now swung my manly e-penis.

But you know what? All of that doesn’t really matter to me that much, and it shouldn’t matter to you all that much either. Why? Because we’re going to talk about movies. You see, movies permeate our existence-that is fact. It’s debatable whether books or movies give us a deeper look at the inner thoughts of a person, but seeing as how I’m a visual type of guy, I think you can figure out my choice. So yes, movies, are awesome-especially sports movies. Even if you’ve never been a member of a sports team, sports movies allow us to get a glimpse at how those things work. Can we be “the I in team” and still win, or do we need to function as one cohesive unit? Is it easy being a star athlete or are they as foible as you and I?

That’s why we’re going to take a quick glimpse at the 5 Best Sports Movies. Hit the jump to see them. Continue reading Eat My Sports: Popcorn links all